Second Outbreak of ASFV in China Reported in Zhengzhou, Henan Province

An outbreak of African swine fever has been discovered in a slaughterhouse in Zhengzhou, capital of central Chian’s Henan Province, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said Thursday [16 August 2018]…Full Article: Xinhua Aug 2018

Key Point

The Zhengzhou slaughterhouse was owned by WH Group (HKG:0288), one of China’s leading pork processors and owner of Smithfield Foods (U.S. pork producer and processor). Roughly 30 pigs out of a group of 260 died from the disease at the Zhengzhou slaughterhouse. The infected pigs were initially procured from Tangyuan County, Jiamusi city, Heilongjiang Province.

ChinaAg Comments

In early August 2018, African swine fever virus (ASFV) was detected for the first time in China on a pig farm in Shenbei New District, northern Shenyang, Liaoning Province. In total, 47 pigs died of the disease while and additional 8,116 pigs were culled in Shenyang.

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a highly contagious disease of pigs that has a near 100% mortality rate. The disease was first reported in Kenya in 1921 and was introduced to the Caucasus region when it spread to Georgia in mid-2007. Since this introduction, ASFV has spread to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Russia. From 2007 to 2017, Russia reported more than 1,000 ASFV outbreaks that resulted in approximately 800,000 pigs being killed. From March to October 2017, there were outbreaks of ASFV in Siberia, causing concern that the disease could spread to China. In August 2018, the FAO noted that ASFV strain detected in China was “similar” to the strain detected in Russia in 2017.